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Infrastructure
and the Imaginary

CSCS256

Wednesdays
2:10 – 4:00 in Langley

CalArts
- School of Critical Studies

Fall
2013

Instructor:
Ken Ehrlich

ken@kenehrlich.net

This
class will investigate sites of presumed stability located between
landscape and architecture, looking to infrastructure to activate a
number of questions related to form and function. How is the built
environment shaped by water, power, waste disposal and transportation
systems? What social networks are given form through infrastructure
and land use? How have artists employed infrastructure to make
visible hidden relationships and power dynamics? We will investigate
the complex technological systems that deliver basic services as a
way to think about public space and to reflect creatively on the
structures that shape our daily lives.

Structured
as a seminar, with readings and in-class discussion, the class will
also involve field trips to a variety of locations in Santa Clarita
associated with infrastructure. In addition, we will consider our
broader relationship to "place" and how it functions in the
construction of social and political identities.

Course
Goals:

Students
will become familiar with the concept of infrastructure, i.e. the
structures that govern daily life but are normally hidden from view.

Students
will learn to integrate fieldwork and research in critical response
writings.

3.
Students will learn to relate the course readings and field trips
to their own metier and artistic practices.

Course
Outcomes:

Students
will write a series of creative Reaction Papers relating the course
readings to their field trip experiences of infrastructure.

Students
will observe up close the technical processes that structure the
local management of water, electricity, transportation systems,
sewage, and garbage.

Students
will research some aspect of contemporary infrastructure using both
critical and artistic methods, culminating in an essay and a class
presentation.